Patient Zeroes
(Eingestellt am 26. Oktober 2025, 15:38 Uhr von gdc)
A Halloween puzzle inspired by the mountain sudoku variant. Thanks ViKingPrime for helping with the lore and aesthetic ideas. According to testers (thanks everyone!) this one should be on the higher end of 3 stars in difficulty. You can find an example puzzle below. Hope you enjoy!
Norma L. Dokes: Normal sudoku rules apply.
Infections: Each digit matching its box number is a "patient zero". Each row and column contains a "patient zero". Patient zeroes are infected. Infected cells infect every orthogonally adjacent cell with a smaller digit. Infections keep spreading until no infected cell has a smaller uninfected orthogonal neighbor. (Every infected cell can be traced back to one or more patient zeroes.)
Path: Draw a 1-cell wide path from the doctor to the hospital. The path only moves orthogonally and may not touch itself, not even diagonally. The path may not contain infected cells.
Microscopes are on the path and count the number of infected cells in the (up to 9) surrounding cells.
Kropki Tablets join consecutive uninfected digits.
Example Puzzle
A 6x6 example of the ruleset. Colors: Green for uninfected, red for patient zeroes and yellow for other infected cells. You can play the example here but the path of the 6x6 is not unique in box 2.
Lösungscode: Digits on the path in column 8, top to bottom.
Kommentare
am 10. November 2025, 20:37 Uhr von mscha
Wonderful new ruleset, I love the interaction between infections and microscopes.
This promises to be an epic series!
am 9. November 2025, 05:58 Uhr von silent_rob
Thanks for the amazing puzzle! Harder than those I usually attempt but the way the theming worked into the mechanics was so well done I had to give it a try. So glad I did because I really enjoyed it!
am 5. November 2025, 13:44 Uhr von Christounet
Epi(demi)c puzzle! Thanks :)
am 1. November 2025, 14:35 Uhr von sunevora
Beautiful puzzle!
Would have been faster if I had remembered one 'patient zero' per row and column.
am 1. November 2025, 12:08 Uhr von eladv
This was wonderful! I'm just re-solving the Rat Runs, and this gives me the same sense of beauty, but with totally different kind of logic. The inflection logic is really cool, and I wonder how far it can go. Some of the steps were really nice -- I guess I should go check out Mountain Sudoku! :)
am 29. Oktober 2025, 19:04 Uhr von marcmees
Very original and nice. Thanks for sharing.
am 29. Oktober 2025, 18:43 Uhr von Exigus
Perfect pathfinding puzzle. Hard but not too much. I totally forgot the "one per row and column" part for quite a bit but other than that fairly smooth. Thanks!
am 29. Oktober 2025, 18:40 Uhr von LehanLehan
Tasty treat as always, thanks,gdc.
am 29. Oktober 2025, 09:33 Uhr von SZCrow
Great puzzle. For me, usually gcd’s puzzle is harder than other’s puzzle with the same difficulty rate, but this one is particularly easy. Maybe a 2 star? IDK
am 29. Oktober 2025, 01:52 Uhr von zardoz37
I found this brutally hard and I kept getting the infection logic wrong.
am 28. Oktober 2025, 02:53 Uhr von Silverscree
This felt like an accurate depiction of avoiding getting sick during the term as a teacher!
am 27. Oktober 2025, 09:22 Uhr von Bankey
Very satisfying to track the infections and lay out a path for Dr Dokes! Thanks, @ gdc for letting us help:).
am 27. Oktober 2025, 07:48 Uhr von wuc
Wow amazing puzzle. One has to be very careful. Great logic. Looking forward for more. Great setting thx.
am 26. Oktober 2025, 20:46 Uhr von PrudentLuck
I loved the contact tracing theme and logic! Very nice puzzle!
am 26. Oktober 2025, 19:45 Uhr von Scorps
Wow, probably the hardest puzzle I've managed to solve! Really enjoyed this, thank you for sharing.
am 26. Oktober 2025, 17:29 Uhr von Ratfinkz
Loved this, really fun some lovely logic! Beautiful puzzle!
am 26. Oktober 2025, 17:14 Uhr von rameshsrivats
Terrific puzzle. Great fun
am 26. Oktober 2025, 17:07 Uhr von Nightmare2805
That was great
am 26. Oktober 2025, 16:49 Uhr von ChinStrap
Loved this!
am 26. Oktober 2025, 15:43 Uhr von jakestilesowen
Neat puzzle! I especially like the infection logic and am curious to see if any more puzzles are set with it.
